04 September, 2011

I can't tell you how long I was glued to my television, playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution, because there's no timer or clock which records time and Raptr doesn't track PS3 playing time, automatically, for some retarded reason. If I had to estimate I'd say I've played it around 50ish hours at this point.
Well then... graphics! Wow. Seeing some initial screens, I was a little disappointed, but coming into the game (which I got on the PS3 by the way) I was amazed. From the opening FMV to the actual game play, the graphics were beautiful. A lot of people complained about that bronze overtone, but I really loved it. It set a very desolate feel to the game and it got me into the setting a lot easier. Adam (lol at slew of Frankenstein references through out the game by the way) was very nicely done and all his actions and movements were fantastic. Some commented how cardboard or messy the graphics were, especially for people, but I found them to be great. Sure some of the people were a bit rigid, but we can't do magic; there's only so much we can do with graphics right now and I think this game did them damn well. Those city scape scenes and flying over different lands... oh man. When you first come to Singapore.. my mouth was hanging open. Gorgeous.
The music was great as well. I sort of felt like it reminded me of the more ambient music to a Bioshock or Fallout in that it really sort of sat behind everything, worming its way into your thoughts. Sometimes it lulled me deep, taking me into the

Beautiful Cityscapes

story is a surreal way. In short; fantastic. I'll be getting the OST as soon as I can. I'd like to buy it, but if I can't find it, I'll download it from somewhere. It's so good and so well composed.
Game mechanics and control. This is a two sided issue for me. First of all, why, oh, why do companies change the layout of well know controller configurations? It's annoying and aggravating and I hate it. Moving things like iron sights, sprint, and reload (to name a few) to buttons different than a slew of our established games is not innovative or challenging; IT'S ANNOYING. That being said, after the initial aggravation of a new controller lay out, I got into it pretty well. The interface is great, the weapons switching is smooth, hacking is awesome. I didn't run into any troubles dishing out my Praxis points how I desired and still having to deal with boss fights and hacking. In fact I ended up just putting points wherever because I had already got what I wanted. I didn't even put points in Typhoon until near the end because it just wasn't useful to my play style.
I played it on normal difficulty by the way, but I want to play it on Tell Me A Story (Easy) because I have a feel I missed a lot of stuff because I was too involved in staying alive. I got 52% of the trophies on my first run, did a nice bunch of side quests (though I don't think I got them all and/or found their secret trophies). That being said, I still got a load of

Take-downs are a thing of beauty

story from the game. I mean geez it's involved. Little things there and there which give you insight into the characters or just the life of people around you or in buildings. I read all the e-mails I could, all the e-books, all the newspapers. Talked to everyone I saw. I even found two quests by randomly talking to people. That's when it feels awesome... my manic OCD's granting me quests and game play. It is sweet caramel in my mind.
Even now I've this desire to play it again. I did start my next cycle and am going to try to not kill anyone this round. It's already been very tough, to be honest. Mission one is down though; everyone lives. Saved the hostages, saved dudes wife, knocked out Sanders for the police. I'm an hero. During my first cycle I was forced to make some choices which were gnawing at me through the rest of the play. This time we'll see how the other choices colour my play.

SPOILERS:

Here are some of the choices I made during my first cycle. I didn't get the new chip because I remembered Elizabeth from the first Deus Ex (a game I didn't like, to be honest, but recall the information from anyway) and anything she is promoting as a 'good thing' is obviously evil. Not only that, but it's so obvious that it's going to fuck up your Christmas if you do get it. I saved Malik, but this was more that I thought it was actually what you're supposed to do. I didn't

Exceptional FPS combat

realise, until after I had beat the game and was checking forums, that you can actually hurry into the building and Malik dies. Whereas I'm curious how this colours other parts of the game, I'm not too happy about leaving her to die, so I'll save her again. I do like her. Talked Taggart's aid out of killing himself for whatever bizarre reason I was thinking of at the time (was surprised by surprise trophy of surprise for saving him) though I did reload and see what happened if he died. Nothing interesting, so I re-reloaded back to saving him save and continued on. I didn't talk to Taggart in the base at the end as I decided I wanted him to die; unfortunately this meant I couldn't see his ending so I guess I will see it this time. I did reload my before ending save to see all the others, though I went with Sarif's ending first as I do believe in his cause (in RL too actually).

SPOILERS END.

Hmm, can't think of other critical plot points that I did, but I've been awake a while and my mind is a smoking ruin.
I recommend this game wholly. It is an FPS RPG in the truest sense of the term. It flawlessly combines the FPG mode of play with the RPG interaction and story. I wasn't going to get the game at first, because I didn't like 1 or 2, but after I read some other friends' comments on G+, I decided to give it a try. I'm so god-damn happy I did because it's incredible. Totally get this game.